What is the Value of a Single Life?

CLEARWATER, FLORIDA • JAN 25, 2011

Melissa Wattman lives a life of miracles—those she experienced herself and those she creates in the lives of others. Her profile is one of 200 “Meet a Scientologist” videos available on the Scientology website at www.scientology.org.

Scientologist Melissa Wattman

Melissa Wattman was not expected to see her ninth birthday. Diagnosed with leukemia, she regained the will to live through Scientology, and recovered.

Having experienced such a miracle herself, it is not surprising that when Melissa turned 16 she decided to become a Scientology auditor. An auditor is a Scientology spiritual counselor, from Latin audire, “to hear or listen.”

“When I looked at how much help I’d received and how much it bettered my life, I wanted to give back,” says Wattman. “People suffer. They experience the death of someone they love, or someone betrays them or they fail. Without Dianetics and Scientology auditing these personal tragedies continue to affect them the rest of their lives and if the pain is less acute, it is only because they have become numb. As a Scientology auditor I can restore joy and happiness to their lives.”

In becoming a Scientology auditor in 1992, Wattman, 34, followed in the tradition of her mother Abby who established and directs a counseling group in Clearwater, Florida. Over the past 19 years, Melissa has helped more than 100 people with the auditing skills she has learned.

“I have salvaged marriages and helped people overcome drug addiction. And as a Scientology auditor, I know that whether I help them right away or it takes a little while, it always works,” she says.

One woman came to Wattman devastated. Her brother had been kidnapped and murdered by terrorists, and the woman only learned of it when she saw it on TV news.

“After just a half-hour session, she was calm, looked years younger, and experienced enormous relief. Nothing can bring her brother back,” says Wattman, “but the trauma and shock are gone. She can cherish his memory without suffering, and has been able to move on.”

“Auditing others gets you in tune with people,” she says. “When you make one person happy it causes a ripple effect—that person reaches out to help others. I see auditing as a personal expression of a love of mankind.”

The popular “Meet a Scientologist” profiles on the Church of Scientology International Video Channel at Scientology.org now total 200 broadcast-quality documentary videos featuring Scientologists from diverse locations and walks of life. The personal stories are told by Scientologists who are educators, teenagers, skydivers, a golf instructor, a hip-hop dancer, IT manager, stunt pilot, mothers, fathers, dentists, photographers, actors, musicians, fashion designers, engineers, students, business owners and more.

A digital pioneer and leader in the online religious community, in April 2008 the Church of Scientology became the first major religion to launch its own official YouTube Video Channel, which has now been viewed by millions of visitors.